Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Classroom Management, and the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline

Abstract

In this article, we focus on connections between and among teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, classroom management practices, and the cradle to prison pipeline. Drawing from Bandura’s (1986) theorization of self-efficacy, we discuss how teachers’ beliefs shape their classroom management practices and how these beliefs and practices can be essential sites to understanding and decreasing disparate outcomes in disciplinary referral patterns among practicing teachers. We emphasize the importance of building teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and sense of efficacy to inform their classroom management practices/decisions. In particular, we focus on three sites of learning that, we argue, are essential to building teachers’ sense of efficacy in the classroom: learning about and building powerful and sustainable relationships with students; learning about and developing an understanding of outside of school contexts that students experience; and recognizing and appropriately responding to traumatic experiences of students.

Additional Resources

1. Milner, H. R. (2010). Start where you are, but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

In this important book, Milner draws from case studies of practicing teachers to illuminate the importance of addressing the opportunity gaps faced by students of color, students living below the poverty line, and students whose first language is not English through classroom interactions and practices. This text offers practical guidance for teachers to better connect with their students and understand the social contexts in which they live.

2. The National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) web site www.niost.org

A program of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, NIOST is a wide-ranging resource for scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and funders interested in understanding and improving out-of-school (OST) experiences for young people. This web site offers a wealth of information and resources regarding youth development and OST programs, including links to important OST resources, research reports, and peer-reviewed articles through the Afterschool Matters Journal, its signature publication.

3. Teaching Tolerance. (2016). Responding to trauma in the classroom: Bad behavior or reacting to trauma? Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-52-spring-2016/department/pd-caf

Although trauma is extremely complex, this quick overview offers some valuable information for teachers. Related to trauma, teachers can learn more about potential behavioral manifestations in classrooms, common contributing factors, and ways to appropriately respond to potentially traumatized youth.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lori Ann Delale-O’Connor

Lori Delale-O’Connor, Adam J. Alvarez, Ira E. Murray, and H. Richard Milner, IV are all at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Urban Education.

Adam J. Alvarez

Lori Delale-O’Connor, Adam J. Alvarez, Ira E. Murray, and H. Richard Milner, IV are all at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Urban Education.

Ira E. Murray

Lori Delale-O’Connor, Adam J. Alvarez, Ira E. Murray, and H. Richard Milner, IV are all at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Urban Education.

H. Richard Milner, IV

Lori Delale-O’Connor, Adam J. Alvarez, Ira E. Murray, and H. Richard Milner, IV are all at the University of Pittsburgh, Center for Urban Education.